A message to the Syrian Army on the anniversary of its establishment: On this anniversary of the establishment of the Army, it is tinged with the blood of hundreds of martyrs and the suffering of tens of thousands of detainees over the past four months. A single day of storming all of Hama and Deir Ezzor, as well as a number of areas in the Damascus suburbs, by the Syrian Army, has left nearly one hundred dead and hundreds detained. Our brothers and families, protectors of the nation.
.Today the Army played a role that should not be remembered. On prior occasions, the Army was responsible for defending the nation and the dignity and pride of the people. The people had looked to you to protect our homeland and preserve its sovereignty and our freedom. However, the system of tyranny and crime, after its political bankruptcy, and its failure to respond to the people’s demands for freedom and dignity and citizenship, found no solution other than to suppress our people in the most brutal manner possible. The Army has been cast into a losing battle against unarmed people with the sole purpose of retaining power. The Army, under orders from its political leadership, has taken on the role of repressing the people’s aspirations. For several months, the Syrian Army has swept cities, towns, and villages with their instruments of war that have killed and destroyed based on orders from a tyrannical regime that rejects the Syrian people’s right to liberty, dignity, and citizenship, while seeking to suppress this revolution and keep the people under the yoke of slavery, injustice, and oppression.
And despite all this, we are all convinced that the Army is facing the threat of divisional splits. The Army is no longer defending our homeland or maintaining security; rather, it is using its artillery against its own relatives, friends, and fellow citizens.
Our brothers, protectors of our homeland: We must realize that we and our Army are in the same trenches, and that this brutal dictatorship will seize any means necessary to retain power and usurp our rights. This regime will not hesitate to kill hundreds of those free soldiers who refuse to fire on their people and lay siege to our cities. It is obvious to everyone that there is a distinction between the agents of the security apparatus, and members of the Army. The Army is rewarded with humiliation and insults while it does not recieve even the most basic necessities of life.
Despite all this, there is still an opportunity for our national army, including soldiers and officers, to take a stand on what is happening by refusing to follow orders to kill and torture its own people, by discarding their weapons, and by refusing to point any weapon at any Syrian, regardless of party or belief. Our Army still has an opportunity to refuse to enroll in the mandatory service that fuels the killings and blockades.
To our national Army: We have a single destiny and a single future. Together, by joining hands, we will write our story of freedom and dignity. History has taught us that the people will survive and tyranny can only fail. We look to you today to be among the first ranks of the bare-chested Syrian heroes’ in their defense of freedom and dignity, to ensure a free and democratic Syria, without corruption and tyranny.
You are rightfully the protectors of the homeland, and one day you will not be the protectors of injustice and tyranny.
Our eternal compassion goes to the martyrs of the Syrian Army, as well as the martyrs of our revolution for freedom and dignity.
The Local Coordination Committees in Syria, August 1, 2011
